30.05.2024
30.05.2024
Across all disciplines, research results from SNSF-funded projects find their way into practice and create connections between science and society. But what exactly do these connections look like?
The SNSF has commissioned a study from the Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) in Vienna that investigated how much social innovation has resulted from SNSF-funded projects. For this, researchers who received funding from the SNSF as part of either the thematically open Project funding or under the Sinergia programme were surveyed. In total, more than 360 SNSF grant recipients took part in the study and answered questions about the multifaceted topic of social innovation.
This term, however, is not easy to grasp, as there are various definitions of its precise meaning. In our pragmatic definition, social innovations are new approaches resulting from research aiming to answer social questions and solve societal issues in practice. These research results directly aim to benefit society and have a specific and explicitly positive societal impact.
The implementation of research findings in practice is only the last step in a long process. Social innovation already starts much earlier on: in the minds of the researchers. Because first and foremost, social innovation requires scientists who want to make contributions to socially relevant topics not just within but also outside of academia. The ZSI study demonstrates that this is often the case. It shows that 65% of all surveyed grant recipients are motivated by the prospect of their research contributing to societal improvement. Three quarters of them even said they were “very motivated”. It is clear that the majority of researchers take the social benefits beyond their scientific field into consideration. And often they do so right from the outset, when designing their research project.
Data: The data used for this graph were reproduced from the ZSI study, relating to Fig. 12 (page 42). The categories “4-6” and “7-10…fully” were summarised as “motivated”.
Since socially innovative projects aim to have a societal impact, people who are not working in academia are often integrated into the research process early on. That was the case with Silvestro Micera: for his project, he was in contact with patients, hospital staff and business partners. The study also investigated such transdisciplinary collaborations. Around a quarter of the respondents stated that in their projects – to a greater or lesser extent – they had involved people from public administration and governmental organizations, welfare and educational institutions and businesses, as well as individual citizens. 15% worked together with NGO. Media representatives were the largest non-academic group the respondents collaborated with – this applied in 34% of cases. According to the study, the non-academic groups most frequently took on a consultative role. Participation took place not only at the end of the project but also often in earlier phases.
Data: The data used for this graph was provided by the ZSI. The graph relates to Fig. 7 (page 25) of the study. The categories “only marginally” and “quite centrally” were summarised as “yes”.
Most of the study participants stated that their research results have led to an improvement in processes, products or service offerings for the general population. For over a quarter of the surveyed grant recipients, their research was applied in public administration and governmental organizations. 25% stated that their research results were used in businesses, and a similar number mentioned that they were used by welfare or educational institutions. In 20% of cases, the research results led to innovations for specific social groups, while in 15% of cases they were implemented in NGO.
Data: The data used for this graph was provided by the ZSI. The graph relates to Fig. 17 (page 55) of the study. The categories “4-6” and “7-10…fully” were grouped together.
The study shows that researchers use a variety of channels to make their research results visible outside the scientific community and to make it more accessible to a broader public. This strengthens the links between academia and society and brings research into the lives of many people. Used in 79% of the cases, the institution’s own websites were the most frequent dissemination channels. A little less than half of the surveyed researchers used traditional media such as television or newspapers for communication, while around 37% discussed their work on social media. Approximately 40% of researchers shared their research results at events for a broad, non-academic audience.
Data: The data used for this graph were reproduced from the ZSI study and relates to Table 11 (page 63) of the study.
Social Innovation study by the ZSI
SNSF news on the Social Innovation study
Data, text and code of this data story are available on Github and archived on Zenodo.
DOI: 10.46446/datastory.social-innovations